


Timê, or, The Family Disappointment

by Alexeigynaix (EllieMurasaki), AlexSeanchai (EllieMurasaki)



Category: Hellenistic Religion & Lore, Metamorphoses - Ovid
Genre: F/M, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 14:20:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10641642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieMurasaki/pseuds/Alexeigynaix, https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieMurasaki/pseuds/AlexSeanchai
Summary: Timê: honor, excellence, acclaim, glory.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Morbane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morbane/gifts).



> I'm trying to use a less Latinized transliteration of the various names here, but I'm not always sure what the original Greek lettering said, so some of these names are using the Latin transliterations and some are not. :(

It's not his fault that he was born  
Poseidon's son,  
that Medusa his own mother died  
when he and Pegasus were born.  
Heritage divine, like his,  
bears certain—expectations.  
If he had his brother’s cunning,  
mother’s boldness,  
father’s might—  
Why then he’d have their glory.

He does not.

He married one Kallirrhoe,  
as beautiful as her mother Tethys  
though in all other ways  
she was wholly child  
of her father Okeanos.  
Kallirrhoe bore him one son  
and one daughter.

—Four children had Kallirrhoe,  
and the father of her second son:  
Poseidon.

Khrusaor’s son: all Geryon’s fame  
is as a cattle-herd—  
a fine career,  
Khrusaor’s own.  
But that tells not all the story.  
Heracles labored long  
in service to Eurystheus  
as commanded by Apollon—  
the tenth Labor of the twelve:  
to steal the cattle  
Geryon tended  
so carefully.  
The fame of Geryon is  
that Heracles killed him.

A grandson of Khrusaor’s,  
first son of his daughter,  
was Orthrus, herding dog.  
His fame lies in his loyalty  
to Geryon and the herd.

A grandson of Khrusaor’s,  
next son of his daughter,  
is Kerberos, guard dog.  
He lives still, but his fame  
lies in keeping wandering dead  
from wandering back to life—  
and in the tale of Heracles.

The Lernaian Hydra  
and the Nemean Lion  
are also children of Ekhidna  
daughter of Khrusaor,  
mother of monsters.  
Heracles slew them.

Ekhidna yet to Typhon bore,  
as well as those, Khimaira.  
Bellerophon slew her,  
but with whose aid?  
Think well.

It's not his fault that he was born  
Poseidon's son  
at all.  
Heritage divine, like his,  
bears certain—expectations.  
If he had his grandsons’ cunning,  
grandsons’ boldness,  
grandsons’ might—  
Why then he’d have their glory.

And he would have died for it.

Honor and acclaim  
are every Greek’s desire.  
Excellence and glory  
are every Greek’s one goal.

Khrusaor has none.

And true it is that death has come  
to him—it comes to all.  
And true it is, most probably,  
that he resides not in Elysium,  
but in the Asphodel Meadows,  
where undistinguished souls  
like shadows drift from bloom  
to bloom.  
And true it is that if he should  
wander from the Meadows,  
his own grandson Kerberos  
is tasked with guarding  
the escape route back to life.

He’s no Akhilleus.

And if he ever disappointed  
his undying family—

Why should he care?

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm basing half of this on an ambiguous pronoun referent! Hesiod's _Theogony_ doesn't clearly name the mother of Ekhidna. I am assuming the ambiguous "she" refers to Kallirrhoe on the basis that the most recently mentioned female name as of that pronoun is Kallirrhoe, and there seems to be no debate over who Ekhidna's father is if her mother is Kallirrhoe. But Wikipedia assures me that's less likely than any of several other genealogies for Ekhidna, including the one where Hesiod's "she" refers to a different nymph. I chose the genealogy that, in my opinion, makes for the best story.


End file.
